Release Notes for Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold 2016

In this File

Release Notes for Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold 2016

Release information

Product name	WhatsUp Gold 2016
Version	v16.5
Release date	v2016 (16.5) - April 21st, 2016 v2016 (16.5.1) - December 20th, 2016 v2016 (16.5.2) - June 13th, 2018

New in WhatsUp Gold 2016

WhatsUp Gold 2016

• Introduced new BasicView, ProView, TotalView, and TotalView Plus product packages with customer friendly licensing.
• Added capability to monitor NetApp storage devices using WhatsUp Gold:
  • Created a new SMIS Credential type.

  

  • Created a new default SMIS Active Monitor.

  

  • Created a new Degraded Array Active Monitor to check the operational state of a node on a monitored storage device.

  

• Added Auto-detect storage device control to advanced options for discovery.
• Enhanced the capabilities of the Interface Performance Monitor to support additional data sources on a Storage Monitoring Environment.
• Enhanced the capabilities of the Temperature Monitor to function within a storage monitoring environment.
• Enhanced the capabilities of the Fan Active Monitor to function within a storage monitoring environment.
• Enhanced the capabilities of the CPU Performance Monitor to support a storage monitoring environment.
• Enhanced the capabilities of the Power Supply Active Monitor to function within a storage monitoring environment.
• Upgraded .NET Libraries from 4.0 to 4.5:
  • Upgraded .NET libraries provide support for TLS 1.2. This allows WhatsUp Gold to monitor severs using TLS 1.2 for:
    • HTTPs Content Monitor
    • SSL Certificate Monitor

Defects resolved in WhatsUp Gold 2016

Defect ID	Category	Issues
WUG-7850	Alert Center	Corrected an issue causing threshold exceptions to not work properly in Alert Center.
WUG-12616	Tools	Removed WhatsUp Gold Diagnostic Tool to account for database space limitations no longer in place.
WUG-12981	Database	Corrected an issue causing the Admin Panel to incorrectly display the maximum size for a SQL Express R2 installation when WhatsUp Gold is connected to a remote SQL database instance.
WUG-13088	Database	Corrected an issue causing the Admin Panel to incorrectly display the maximum size when connected to a database instance using SQL Server 2012.
WUG-13326	Virtual	Corrected an issue causing disk drives to be duplicated in report data when monitoring devices using the WhatsVirtual plug-in.
WUG-14892	Discovery	Corrected an issue causing a timeout to occur between the discovery console and the discovery service.
WUG-16285	UI	Corrected an issue causing some dialog boxes to not open completely when accessing the WhatsUp Gold server using remote desktop connection and Internet Explorer.
WUG-17269	SNMP	Corrected an issue causing SNMP trap definitions with passive monitor alerting to become corrupted following an upgrade to version 16.4.

New in WhatsUp Gold 2016 Service Pack 1

For more information about the WhatsUp Gold 2016 Service Pack 1 release, see Service Pack 1 Release Notes.

New in WhatsUp Gold 2016 Service Pack 2

For more information about the WhatsUp Gold 2016 Service Pack 2 release, see Service Pack 2 Release Notes.

System Requirements

Operating system requirements

Following are OS environment recommendations:

• For evaluation purposes, WhatsUp Gold will operate on Windows 7 and 8. However, production level support requires Windows Server versions only. See below for supported Windows Server platforms.
• Installing WhatsUp Gold on a domain controller is not recommended or supported.
• If WhatsUp Gold is hosted in virtual environments, to prevent licensing issues, make sure that you assign a static MAC address to the virtual machine on which WhatsUp Gold is operating. Refer to your virtual machine software help documentation for information about assigning a static MAC address for the virtual machine.
• WhatsUp Gold requires dual-core processors @ 2.4 GHz (min). If you are installing WhatsUp Gold on a Virtual Machine, make sure that your guest VM has at least two CPU cores allocated to it. Refer to additional Hardware requirements guidelines below.

WhatsUp Gold supports the following Windows Server platforms:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit) with Desktop Experience
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (64-bit) with Desktop Experience
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit)
• Windows 7 and 8.1 for product evaluation

Database requirements

Important: If you use a remote SQL database, instead of the default Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition install that occurs as part of the default WhatsUp Gold installation, refer to the WhatsUp Gold Database Migration and Management Guide for information about other WhatsUp Gold database configurations.

Note: The collation of Microsoft SQL Server being used to host WhatsUp Gold databases (WhatsUp, NetFlow, NFArchive and iDroneService) should be set to SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.

Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation is allowed, but is not recommended as it could cause errors in operation.

Additionally, the collation of each of the aforementioned WhatsUp Gold databases should also be set to SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.

Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation is allowed, but is not recommended as it could cause errors in operation.

Note: For WhatsUp Gold planning purposes, future versions of WhatsUp Gold releases will not support Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

WhatsUp Gold requires a database to maintain data about monitored devices, store system configurations, and save user specified customizations. The database may be co-located with the WhatsUp Gold installation, or may be hosted on a remote machine. Data services for WhatsUp Gold can be provided by the following database servers:

If you install WhatsUp Gold on:	You have these database options:
	Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition 32-bit or 64-bit Local	Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard or Enterprise 32-bit or 64-bit Local/Remote	Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise 32-bit or 64-bit Local/Remote	Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard or Enterprise 32-bit or 64-bit Local/Remote	Microsoft SQL Server Cluster 2005, 2008, 2008 R2, or 2012 Enterprise or Datacenter 32-bit or 64-bit Remote only	Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Standard or Express
Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate	64-bit local
Windows Server 2008 SP2
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2012 R2

Web server requirements

Web services are required for the web-enabled functionality and reporting provided by WhatsUp Gold:

If you install WhatsUp Gold on:	IIS version 6	IIS version 7.x	IIS version 8.x
Windows 7 Professional / Enterprise / Ultimate
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2012 R2

IMPORTANT web server requirements for IIS 7.x or 8

The WhatsUp Gold installer automatically installs/enables IIS 7.x or 8 on platforms where it is supported. If needed, you can verify which IIS 7.x or 8 OS features are installed/enabled and properly configured from the Turn Windows features on or off dialog. Verify that the Web Server (IIS) Roles Services listed below have been installed and are enabled.

WhatsUp Gold requires the following Web Server Role Services for IIS 7.x or 8 at a minimum:

• Web Server
• ASP .NET
• Static Content
• HTTP Redirection
• Default Document

IMPORTANT web server requirements for IIS 6

If using IIS 6 and it is not installed on the WhatsUp Gold server; install IIS 6 prior to installing WhatsUp Gold. The WhatsUp Gold installer then enables IIS 6 features automatically. For additional information about IIS 6 setup, refer to instructions from Microsoft or see using the Installing and Configuring WhatsUp Gold guide.

WhatsUp Gold requires the following web server extension for IIS 6 at a minimum:

• ASP .NET

Web and mobile interface requirements

The following web browsers and mobile device interfaces are supported for use with WhatsUp Gold:

• WhatsUp Gold Web interface:
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.x, 10.x, and 11.x
  • Firefox 40 and Chrome 44 were tested with WhatsUp Gold 16.4. Newer versions of these browsers will likely support WhatsUp Gold, but have not been extensively tested.

Important: WhatsUp Gold does not support any version of Internet Explorer in Compatibility or Quirks mode.

• APM considerations. The APM plug-in implements client side processing and rendering for reports and other features in APM. Note that the CPU and memory on the client system, used to manage and view APM features, impacts the APM viewing and performance experience.
• Wireless and WhatsVirtual considerations. Canvas technology is used in WhatsUp Gold and is required to view Wireless and WhatsVirtual maps.

• WhatsUp Gold Mobile interface. Mobile Safari 4.2, 5.x; Microsoft Internet Explorer Mobile 6.1.x; or Opera Mini 4.2.

WhatsVirtual supported virtual environments

The WhatsVirtual plug-in supports virtual hosts and virtual machines running on the following virtual environments:

• VMware vCenter Server versions 4.0, 4.1, 5.0, 5.5, and 6.0
• VMware ESX versions 3.5, 4.0, and 4.1
• VMWare ESXi versions 3.5, 4.0, 5.0, 5.1, 5.5, and 6.0

Wireless supported devices

Important: Because of the volume of data collected and stored for WhatsUp Gold Wireless, we recommended that you use Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2, Microsoft SQL Server 2012 or Microsoft SQL Server Cluster 2005, 2008, 2008 R2, or 2012 to store the data collected by WhatsUp Gold. See the Installing and Configuring WhatsUp Gold guide advanced options section for more information.

Wireless supports the following devices:

Important: If you are monitoring Cisco Aironet Autonomous access points we recommend that you run IOS 12.3 or newer. Inaccurate data may be report with older IOS versions.

• Cisco Small Business wireless devices (Cisco WAP321)
• Cisco 3650 Series Wireless LAN Controller with lightweight AP
• Cisco 5700 Series Wireless LAN controller
• Cisco WiSM2 (6500 Series) Wireless LAN controller
• Cisco Flex 7500 Series wireless LAN controller
• Cisco Aironet wireless LAN controllers and access points
• Cisco Airespace wireless LAN controllers and access points
• Aruba Mobility wireless LAN controllers and access points
• Meru Networks wireless devices
• Ruckus wireless devices

Flow Monitor software requirements

WhatsUp Gold Flow Monitor has the same base system requirements as WhatsUp Gold. In addition, WhatsUp Gold Flow Monitor requires:

• WhatsUp Gold Standard Edition, Premium Edition, MSP Edition, or Distributed Edition.
• At least one routing device that supports one or more of the following protocols to send flow data to Flow Monitor:
  • NetFlow versions 1, 5, 7, or 9
    • NetFlow-Lite
    • Flexible NetFlow
    • NetFlow v9 NSEL (NetFlow Secure Event Logging)
  • sFlow versions 2 or 5
  • J-Flow
  • IPFIX

Note: WhatsUp Gold Flow Monitor performs well in most WhatsUp Gold configurations that use the default SQL Server 2008 Express Edition database. However, some data collections, over 10 GB or configurations where data is collected and archived over a long period of time, will benefit from the additional performance capabilities of other SQL Server Editions. For more information about WhatsUp Gold supported SQL databases, see the release notes Database requirements section. Also, please consult Microsoft guidelines for the SQL Server database edition that best fits your requirements.

Hardware requirement guidelines

The following hardware requirements provide minimum suggested guidelines for WhatsUp Gold installations.

Note: Because of enhanced features and capabilities, WhatsUp Gold v15 and prior users may experience increased CPU and Memory utilization with WhatsUp Gold v16 and later.

Note: Hardware requirements vary depending on the WhatsUp Gold configuration. Increasing the number of devices monitored, number of monitors, types of monitors, polling intervals, or other configuration options can result in additional load on the server and database. Hardware configuration adjustments may be required to optimize performance for your network.

	100 Devices / 500 Monitors* minimum required	2,500 Devices / 12,500 Monitors* minimum required	20,000 Devices / 100,000 Monitors* minimum required
Processor(s)	WhatsUp Gold: Dual-core (Physical computer recommended)	WhatsUp Gold: Quad-core (Physical computer recommended)	WhatsUp Gold Server: Eight-core Remote SQL Server: Eight-core (Physical computer recommended)
Processor speed	2.4 GHz or more	2.4 GHz or more	2.4 GHz or more
RAM	4 GB	8 GB	WhatsUp Gold Server: 8 GB Dedicated SQL Server: 32 GB (64 GB recommended)
Database type	SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition	Dedicated Microsoft SQL Server 2005 / Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 / Microsoft SQL Server 2012	Dedicated Microsoft SQL Server 2005 / Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 / Microsoft SQL Server 2012
Hard drive	15 GB or more free space	OS/Application - 15 GB or more free space in RAID 1 Database files - 4 x 100 GB in RAID 10	OS/Application - 15 GB or more free space in RAID 1 Database files - 8 x 250 GB in RAID 10 Log files - 2 x 100 GB in RAID 0 Temp database files - 2 x 250 GB in RAID 0 For more information about moving SQL Server database and log files, see the WhatsUp Gold Database Migration and Management Guide
Network interface card	100 Mbps (1 Gbps preferred)	100 Mbps (1 Gbps preferred)	1 Gbps
CD-ROM or DVD-ROM	Required if installing from CD-ROM. Not required for download installations.	Required if installing from CD-ROM. Not required for download installations.	Required if installing from CD-ROM. Not required for download installations.
Video display resolution	1280 x 1024 or higher	1280 x 1024 or higher	1280 x 1024 or higher
Sound card	SAPI-capable sound card required for Text-to-Speech actions	SAPI-capable sound card required for Text-to-Speech actions	SAPI-capable sound card required for Text-to-Speech actions
Modem and phone line	Required for pager, SMS, and beeper actions; modem pooling is not supported	Required for pager, SMS, and beeper actions; modem pooling is not supported	Required for pager, SMS, and beeper actions; modem pooling is not supported
GSM modem	Required for SMS Direct actions	Required for SMS Direct actions	Required for SMS Direct actions

*The performance for the number of devices and monitors supported is dependent upon several system variables such as server processor and memory size, polling frequency, round-trip time (RTT) for polling distance, the amount of time for which data is archived in the database, types of monitors polled (for example, SNMP-type monitors are significantly more efficient than WMI monitors), and other factors.

Poller requirements

Depending on the network environment and product deployment, WhatsUp Gold can poll up to a maximum of 20,000 devices and up to 100,000 monitors with one WhatsUp Gold server and additional pollers (additional pollers required depend on the amount of SNMP and WMI monitors). Additional pollers installed on your WhatsUp Gold system transmit active monitor and performance monitor data to the WhatsUp Gold server. Extending polling activity across multiple pollers increases the number of devices for which WhatsUp Gold can poll and collect data to send back to the WhatsUp Gold system. Using additional pollers, WhatsUp Gold can efficiently scale polling operations to a larger number of network devices, ultimately providing the capacity to monitor and manage larger networks. Additional pollers may be installed on any Windows system on the network, other than the WhatsUp Gold server. For more information, see Using additional Pollers with WhatsUp Gold.

	Minimum required for each additional clustered poller
Processor(s)	Dual-core
Processor speed	2 GHz
RAM	4 GB
Hard drive space for application	2 GB
Network interface card	100 Mbps
OS support	See Operating system and virtual environment requirements section above

Installing WhatsUp Gold

WhatsUp Gold 2016 supports direct upgrade installations from WhatsUp Gold v15.x, or v16.x. If you upgrade from a previous version of WhatsUp Gold, make sure to clear the browser cache so the user interface displays the new web application pages after the upgrade. Refer to the Installing and Configuring WhatsUp Gold guide for details about installation, upgrade, repair, and uninstall.

Important: Ipswitch does not support upgrades for WhatsUp Gold custom database modifications.

If the WhatsUp Gold 2016 installer detects database changes to your WhatsUp Gold database schema, it warns you of the issues and proceeds with the install. In future WhatsUp Gold releases, the installer will not proceed until the installer warnings are addressed.

Offline Installation and Activation

Important: If you are unable to connect to the Internet, you must use the offline installer package to install WhatsUp Gold. Download the package from the WhatsUp Gold Customer Portal using a connected machine, then run the installer on your designated server. When prompted to enter your activation number, select Use offline activation mode and proceed with the activation process. If you are an evaluator and do not have access to the Customer Portal, please contact Ipswitch Customer Service for assistance.

Note: Customers with pure IPv6 environments must use offline activation.

Configuring WhatsUp Event Log Management Reports for WhatsUp Gold

WhatsUp Gold version 15.0 and later provides integration with the WhatsUp Event Log Management central database. For access to the reports and data, you must also have WhatsUp Event Log Management products, specifically WhatsUp Event Archiver and/or WhatsUp Event Alarm, configured to send collected log data to a MS SQL Server. WhatsUp Gold accesses report data through stored procedures in the ELM database. For more information, see Using Event Log Management Reports in WhatsUp Gold.

Troubleshooting

Potential SQL Server Express installation errors

• DO NOT use Terminal Services or Remote Desktop for the installation. The installation or upgrade may fail.
• A Group Policy Object (GPO), applied on your domain, that has removed or altered the user rights of the WhatsUpGold_User account on the WhatsUp Gold server can cause a generic 503 Service Unavailable Error to be displayed after the WhatsUp Gold installation. To correct the error and verify/restore applicable settings, see Group Policy Object 503 Service Unavailable Error.
• There are known issues with installing WhatsUp Gold on a domain controller, therefore installing WhatsUp Gold on a domain controller is not a supported install scenario.
• Check other services that may be running and stop these services during the install operation. These services include:
  • Microsoft SQLServerAgent (for the "WhatsUp" instance)
  • Microsoft COM Transaction Integrator
  • Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC)
  • Microsoft Message Queuing
  • Microsoft Search
  • MSSQLServerOLAPService
• If there was a previous, non-default installation of WhatsUp Gold, a "WhatsUp" Data Source (DSN) may still exist. Remove the WhatsUp DSN from the Data Sources (ODBC) Control Panel and restart the install.

Configuring the firewall to allow WMI traffic

WhatsUp Gold uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to monitor and restart Windows Services. For each device that is assigned an NT Service Active Monitor, you must supply the Windows credentials. Also, when creating a Service Restart Action, you must supply Windows credentials for each Action. Credentials must have administrative permissions on the remote server. Local accounts with credentials that match remote accounts are no longer required to monitor remote servers.

Credentials are configured in the WhatsUp Gold Credentials Library and used in several places throughout WhatsUp Gold. They can also be associated to devices in Device Properties > Credentials, or through Bulk Field Change for Credentials.

The use of WMI could have some implications if target devices are behind a firewall. To successfully monitor and/or restart NT Services, you need to modify firewall settings so that:

1. The RPC port (135) is open for connections.
2. The DCOM port range is defined and open for connections.

For more Troubleshooting information, see the Troubleshooting section in the application Help or refer to the WhatsUp Gold Support Site.

For more information

WUGspace is a WhatsUp Gold IT community centered around valuable technical content for network engineers, IT managers, Architects, and System Administrators. Visit the community for additional product information and help, learn from other users, submit product ideas, and more. Visit the WhatsUp Gold forum on the WUGspace community site.

• Application Help for the console and web interface. The console and web help contain dialog assistance, general configuration information, and how-to's that explain how to use the features. The Table of Contents is organized by functional area, and can be accessed from the main menu or by clicking Help in the console, or the ? icon in the web interface.
• Getting Started Guide. This guide provides an overview of WhatsUp Gold, information to help you get started using the application, the system requirements, and information about installing and upgrading. The Getting Started Guide is available on the WhatsUp Gold web site.
• WhatsUp Community. WUGspace is a WhatsUp Gold IT community centered around valuable technical content for network engineers, IT managers, Architects, and System Administrators. Visit the community for additional product information and help, learn from other users, submit product ideas, and more. Visit the WhatsUp Gold forum on the WUGspace community site.
• Additional WhatsUp Gold resources. For a list of current and previous guides and help available for WhatsUp Gold products, see the WhatsUp Gold web site.
• Licensing Information. Licensing and support information is available on your Ipswitch Account. This site provides enhanced web-based capabilities to view and manage Ipswitch product licenses.
• Technical Support. Use the Support site for a variety of product help and resources. From here you can view product documentation, search Knowledge Base articles, access the community site for help from other users, and get other Technical Support information. The Support Site is available on the WhatsUp Gold web site.